


Guidance

by Shadaras



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Family Bonding, Force Ghosts, Gen, Mentor/Protégé, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 18:37:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5466926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadaras/pseuds/Shadaras
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A missing set of scenes from the movie: Rey flies the Millennium Falcon back to the Resistance base on D'Qar, and talks to Leia about the events of Starkiller Base.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Guidance

Rey flies the _Falcon_ back to D’Qar.

That’s what the navicomp tells her the coordinates belong to, anyway; Chewbacca entered them and then retreated to bandage Finn in the _Falcon_ ’s tiny medbay. Rey rather suspects he retreated to mourn his partner, too. And sure, there’s not much to do in the cockpit of the _Falcon_ when they’re in hyperspace, but Rey sits there anyway, in the co-pilot’s seat where she flew next to Han once and (in another world) may have accepted an offer to keep flying there.

She shifts in the seat slightly, so that she can’t see where Han should be sitting. The echo of his presence still looms large, but it isn’t as deeply haunting as it could be. She didn’t know him long enough -- she’d heard some stories, sure, but that’s different from _knowing_ , as even their brief acquaintance had shown.

He’d cared enough to come for her, though, when she’d been captured by... Kylo Ren, the troopers had called him. _Ben_ had echoed in his head, though, and Ben is what Han had named him. Rey shook her head. Names weren’t her strong suit. He’d captured her, and Han had come with Finn and Chewie to rescue her. It was like one of the sagas told to children -- including how she hadn’t really needed rescuing.

Han had brought them there, Finn had given her Luke’s lightsaber, and Chewie had rescued them when the planet broke. She supposed that made her the hero, the one who fought off the villain. Maybe it would be over now. Starkiller Base was gone. Han was dead. Maybe Kylo Ren was too, and if he’d survived he’d come back as Ben. But that would be too simple and easy, wouldn’t it? Rey sighed, and glanced at the navicomputer. Still another few hours before they left hyperspace.

She spent those hours curled up in the worn co-pilot’s seat, drowsing and occasionally starting awake because she thought she saw Han sitting in the pilot’s seat, smiling at her. “You did good, kid,” echoes in her ears as she wakes to the _beep-beep-beep_ of the navicomp alerting her that the _Falcon_ was about to exit hyperspace. Rey blinks, confused, as the stars resolve and her eyes tell her what her ears didn’t want to: he’s still not there. And she knows he’ll never be there again, wish as any of them might.

Chewie sticks his head in the cockpit and growls at her.

She doesn’t know Shyriiwook; Wookiees didn’t come to Jakku, where the desert ate all the trees and the only heights you could find were downed spaceships being pulled apart, piece by piece, for scrap. But she says, guessing based on tone what he’d said, “I’m fine. I mean, if you’d rather…?”

He shakes his head and retreats again.

Rey turns back to the controls, hiding her face as she grimly takes over from the computer. Flying through the system is going to be boring -- they exited hyperspace about two hours from the base coordinates displaying on the navicomp -- but she needs something to do. In the deserts of Jakku, she was always doing something. Finding salvage, scavenging parts, walking or driving from place to place, eating, sleeping... even in the pauses between, she was deciding what to do next to ensure survival.

Out here, in the depths of space, it isn’t so different. The strangeness of having a place to live stocked with enough food not to worry is what she understands least -- except for the sheer amount of water. Even in space, it was easier to find water than in a desert. She’d showered when first on-board again, cleansing herself of both Kylo Ren’s phantom touch and the grit and sweat of battle. It had helped with the latter far more than the former.

Other changes, like the lack of a horizon, could be accepted, understood. The plentiful resources, though, that was unfamiliar. This whole adventure felt like a dream that she’d wake from soon enough -- though how she would have dreamt the dreams she’d had already... Rey shook her head firmly. There was no use worrying about maybes and what-ifs and might-have-beens. This was real. This was happening. She had people who would come rescue her despite everything, and she was flying the _Falcon_. Two impossible dreams, and she was living them. “Things can only go up from here,” she murmured, and let herself relax into the routine motions of flight.

When the base came into sight, built into rolling green hills, shrouded by forests that Rey had only seen in holos before, she shook her head and let the computer do most of the work. She checked the systems, kept things running, answered the comm -- and she heard, as she responded with “Rey, onboard the _Millennium Falcon_ ,” the mix of relief and anxiety in the voice of the comm officer giving her heading instructions.

Chewie carries Finn down the ramp, and if he’s moving more slowly than normal, that’s just because he’s carrying a wounded man. Rey follows behind him and finds herself nearly bowled over by the cheers of the assembled crowd. One man, dressed like a pilot, leads Chewie and Finn to a hovercard and help load him on, anxiously following close behind. Chewie leaves with the crowd, and then Rey’s standing there, alone as the crowd returns to what Rey guesses is the base proper to celebrate.

One other person remains there, standing in front of her. An older woman, dressed conservatively, graying hair held tight to her head. Her gaze is steady, and directed right at Rey.

Reluctant for no reason she could name, Rey looks up and meets her eyes.

_Oh._

Rey steps forward and hugs General Leia Organa, murmuring, “I’m sorry,” as she does. The memories of Leia that ran through her head at first sight are.. hers? Ben’s? It’s all muddled, all softened by age. Leia looks different now than in those memories, but the keen eyes and the warmth in her face are the same, and the way she holds herself and the strength in her arms are still true.

A minute later, when Leia pulls away from the hug, she’s smiling. “You’re the one young Finn was so anxious to rescue,” she says, voice rough from unshed tears. “Han spoke well of you, before he came up with another of his hare-brained rescue schemes.”

Rey laughs, but it comes out shaky and broken.

Leia’s face softens, and she says, “Let me take you inside, and we can speak at greater length in greater comfort. The last few days haven’t been easy on you, have they?”

“No,” Rey whispers, not trusting her voice any louder. “They really haven’t.”

The general nods, and takes Rey’s arm, and Rey pretends not to notice how hard she’s gripping, in the same way that Leia pretended not to notice the tears trembling, unshed, in Rey’s eyes.

The celebration continues around them, but Rey can see how everyone notices the looks on their faces, and there are quiet murmurs of “I heard he died...” and the expressions change from confusion to pity, and Rey wants to yell at all of them, say _Why weren’t you there helping him?_ , because that pity’s hiding guilt as much as anything else.

But she didn’t survive on Jakku by making enemies, so she holds her tongue as Leia guides her into a back room, through a corridor, and out into what has to be a garden.

“Make yourself comfortable,” she says, settling herself on a cushioned chair woven out of something Rey had never seen before. “I’m afraid I don’t have any drinks at hand, but I think we have some things to speak of first.”

Rey nods, her throat tight. “I saw him die,” she says, and her voice is steadier than she ever would have thought.

Leia’s eyes close, briefly, and her mask drops for a breath: she’s old, and tired, and so, so sad.

“He called the man who captured me Ben,” Rey continues, and she sits on a stone bench. It’s cold under her legs. She welcomes it, helping keep her in this moment. “He walked out onto a bridge over a pit that I think held the superweapon’s charge, and he talked to... Ben?”

“Kylo Ren,” Leia says softly. “That’s what he named himself when he left.” Her hands are clasped in her lap. Only because Rey’s looking does she see how white her knuckles are, around the dusky purple fabric of her tunic.

“Kylo Ren,” Rey repeats. “They talked. I couldn’t hear what they said. And then...” She takes a breath, and forces her own fingers to uncurl. “Kylo Ren held out his lightsaber. Han took it.” The scent of rich earth was almost overpowering. “I thought...” Rey et the rest out in a single breath. “Then the sun went out, and Kylo Ren turned his lightsaber on Han.”

Leia closes her eyes, bows her head. “We had hoped it would be otherwise.”

“Han fell into the pit, and then Chewie and we shot at him, and then... we fought in the woods with lightsabers. He was still there when we left.”

“He’s not dead,” Leia says, almost absently. “I would have felt that just as surely as Han’s death.”

Rey jerks her eyes away from the greenery to meet Leia’s once more. “What?”

She smiles, amusement breaking through the pain. “I’m just as strong in the Force as my brother Luke, Rey. The only difference is in the amount we choose to use it.”

“Then...” Rey pulls the lightsaber off her belt. “Shouldn’t this go to you?”

Leia’s eyes darken, and her smile fades. “No. It came to you, didn’t it?”

Rey pulls her legs up onto the stone in front of her. “I... yes. It... led me to it, I think? I saw... something, when I first touched it.”

“Then that’s settled.” Leia gently pushed Rey’s hand, and the lightsaber, back towards her. “It’s yours now.”

“But I don’t know how to use it.” Rey clips it back onto her belt, and wraps her arms around her legs. “I only survived Kylo Ren through luck.”

Leia looks at her for a long moment, face gentle, and then her lips curve up into a soft smile. “I think the Force may have had some things to do with that, child.” She stands, and steps towards Rey. Slowly, and softly, she reaches towards Rey, until her hand is on Rey’s cheek, and Rey’s crying, and leaning into Leia’s hand without even thinking about it.

Through those tears, Rey manages, “I was so scared.”

“I know,” Leia says, holding her, rocking her like the mother Rey has always dreamt of having, “I know.”

When her tears finally slow, Rey doesn’t pull away. She simply sits there, eyes closed, breathing in the warmth of greenery and comforting touch, and says, “What happens now?”

Leia strokes her hair, hands light and warm. “I will teach you what I can. And perhaps this time, we will find Luke.” Her sigh is filled with regret and love. “Then he can teach you what I do not know.”

Rey straightens, and turns to look at Leia, and smiles for the first time since Takodana. “I can’t think of a better mentor to have than you.”

From Leia’s smile, brilliant as the sun, and the hug that Rey is once again encompassed in, she thinks Leia knows how deeply she means it.


End file.
